The scales of justice weigh heavily

I've stayed away from this subject for the entirety of its news run, but I finally found a way to approach it from the standpoint of religion, or at the least, ethics.

Let's examine ourselves in these categories:

1) Does one sin (call it mistake if you will) negate a lifetime of good?
2) Does the degree of sin (call it error or even law-breaking) negate the degree of good?
3) Does one "incident" of bad judgment weigh-down the judge's scale when there is a life-time of good choices on the other side?
4) Finally, do sins of omission out-weigh sins of commission, in other words does allowing sins to happen in our lives by not doing something equal the sins in our lives that we actively do?

Let's examine these questions through the lives of two men, who happen to be in the newspaper this morning, Penn State long-time coach Joe Paterno and Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick.

Paterno is the winningest college football coach. He spent almost 50 years winning games at Penn State University, raising money, doing things the "right" way in terms of recruiting and such. His legacy, before 2011 was secure in every way. I've never met the man, but I've known persons who knew him and they all say he was an outstanding man. Yet, apparently he knew and at one time employed a man named Jerry Sandusky, a pedophile, who sexually abused children. He apparently knew this and did nothing, according to a report, to stop it. The nation now wants a statute of Paterno taken down for his sins of omission. Paterno died last year without every saying those words that are so hard to say, "I'm sorry."

Vick was convicted of dog-fighting a few years back, slaughtering and torturing dogs that would not fight at one point, but he served his time and is now the beneficiary of a second chance, and a huge contract. He has written a book acknowledging his past, but moving on. He even has begun a new clothing line.

So, where is the point? I guess it's this in terms of our questions. The Apostle Paul fairly was adamant that there is no degree of sin. His entire thesis about grace needed for our salvation, through faith, is that if one would be governed by what he called the law, the Mosaic law, part of which is the Ten Commandments, one would be governed ethically, morally, spiritually by it all. In other words, if you're in for a penny, you're in for the whole thing to mix my metaphors gleefully.

One mistake, one error, one problem, one boo-boo, one grievous choice, one simply little sin is just as big as, well, murder and the like. One mistake thus equals all the good one has done because one can never do enough good.

Thus everyone needs a second chance. The grand question becomes how does one get one? Upon that, C.S. Lewis wrote, lies the difference in Christianity and every other religion.

Jay Paterno, Joe's son, said on ESPN the other day that this one bad moment shouldn't negate his father's long, long legacy of good. The sad but clear fact is it does. It always does. One affair equals a half-century of happy marriage. One lie equals a political career of telling the truth.

And one letting a pedophile operate under your nose or one slaughtering of animals equals every football game ever won. In fact, in my mind it more than equals it.

Do I forgive them? Certainly. I must, or I do not understand what Jesus talked about. That's the scales of justice I must operate with, because that's the forgiveness that's been given me, whose sin is equal to Paterno's or Vick's.